The study of Kafka has been a respected field of research for many decades, and Gerhard Neumann is the best-known Kafka scholar. The present book documents the findings that have emerged over Neumann’s more than forty years of engagement with Kafka’s works. By exploring both thematic and editorial relationships, this volume provides two forms of access to one of the most important bodies of work in all of world literature. The author, a co-editor of critical editions of Kafka’s works, is able to speak from the perspectives of both a hermeneutist and editor. The present study presents literary scholars with the results of a concentrated reading of Kafka’s work, organized according to key thematic concepts: life, writing, anthropology, art, and mediality.

Gerhard Neumann, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.